|
] Disease mongering is a pejorative term for the practice of widening the diagnostic boundaries of illnesses and aggressively promoting their public awareness in order to expand the markets for treatment. Among the entities benefiting from selling and delivering treatments are pharmaceutical companies, physicians, and other professional or consumer organizations. ==Term== The term “monger” has ancient roots, providing the basis for many common compound forms such as cheesemonger, fishmonger, and fleshmonger for those who peddle such wares respectively. “Disease mongering” as a label for the "invention" or promotion of diseases in order to capitalize on their treatment was first used in 1992 by health writer Lynn Payer, who applied it to the Listerine mouthwash campaign against halitosis (bad breath). Payer defined disease mongering as a set of practices which include the following:〔, citing *〕 * Stating that normal human experiences are abnormal and in need of treatment * Claiming to recognize suffering which is not present * Defining a disease such that a large number of people have it * Defining a disease's cause as some ambiguous deficiency or hormonal imbalance * Associating a disease with a public relations spin campaign * Directing the framing of public discussion of a disease * Intentionally misusing statistics to exaggerate treatment benefits * Setting a dubious clinical endpoint in research * Advertising a treatment as without side effect * Advertising a common symptom as a serious disease The incidence of conditions not previously defined as illness being medicalised as "diseases" is difficult to scientifically assess due to the inherent social and political nature of the definition of what constitutes a disease, and what aspects of the human condition should be managed according to a medical model. For example, halitosis, the condition which prompted Payer to coin the phrase "disease mongering", isn't merely an imagined social stigma but can stem from any of a wide spectrum of conditions spanning from bacterial infection of the gums to kidney failure, and is recognized by the Scientific Council of the American Dental Association as "a recognizable condition which deserves professional attention". 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「disease mongering」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|